Blood Angels Heraldry questions

Hi, everyone...

I'm toying around with starting a Blood Angels successor chapter (nothing like a free downloadable codex to grant some inspiration), and I got a little stuck on a couple details. I was wondering if someone could help with this.

My first question is about squad numbering. According to the Codex Astartes (I've seen a rundown of a chapter's organization online), companies 2 thru 5 consist of 6 tac squads, 2 assault, and 2 devastator. Does it matter which is which as far as umbering the squads? In other words, is it always squads #1-6 are tactical, #7-8 assault, and #9-10 dev, or is there some other standard mix? Or, is the numbering completely arbitrary?

My next question concerns tactical squad sergeants. Again, according to the Codex Astartes, a Sergeant may paint his helmet red, or add a red skull to it. But, the helmets of the Blood Angel's tactical squads are already red, and I'm keeping this for my paint scheme. Is there something canon that Blood Angels do to signify their tactical sergeants? The other squads (assault, devastator, veteran) all have different-colored helmets, so I was just going to pick one that's got a skull on it and paint that red.

I have considered just using the helmet-free heads for sergeants, but something about that practice just seems... unsafe. Kind of like driving without a seatbelt.

To answer your question: Yes, squads 1-6 are Tactical, 7&8 are Assault and 9&10 are Devistator.

However, the Blood Angels use a different method of identifying their squads. But if you prefer to use Codex markings, that works too (the Blood Drinkers are a Blood Angels' successor who adheres very closely to the Codex in terms of markings).

Yeah, I know the BA's use their own marking system. I think the first time I saw it was in How to Paint Space Marines, but there's a Cliffs Notes version at the end of the Blood Angels Codex I was going by. You can see what I'm talking about here:Warhammer 40,000 - Blood Angels

The notes on the second-to-last page, with the army summary, show how they identify Chapter (left shoulder), Company (right shoulder), Squad Number (right kneepad), and Squad Type (helmet color). I was planning to adhere to all of those as closely as I could while also incorporating my own color scheme to the rest of the armor.

Heraldry is quite basic. red helmets for tactical, yellow for assaultmarines and blue for devestators. Honour guard have golden helmets. Every squad have a squadmarking on the right knee and an armybadge often on the same leg beneathe the squad marking.
Death company have black armour and no squad markings or armybadges.

As to shoulderpads; the blood angel heraldry is on the left shoulder and companymarking is on the right. The company marking is essentially a blood-drop in dirrerent colour depending on company (first company have a white skull instead).

Sergeants usually have black shoulder pads too (as do squad leaders), to mark them from regular marines. If you're painting black trim on your regular shoulder pads then that should become red on the sergeants. I don't think I've ever seen helmet markings to differentiate BA sergeants.

Sergeants usually have black shoulder pads too (as do squad leaders), to mark them from regular marines. If you're painting black trim on your regular shoulder pads then that should become red on the sergeants. I don't think I've ever seen helmet markings to differentiate BA sergeants.

Yeah, after searching around a little more, I've found that that's the difference; squad leaders have black shoulder pads with a red rim instead of totally red. I'm going to have to work out my own, because in my color scheme, all their shoulder pads are going to be black with red trim.